Latest news with #DigitalDomain
Digital Trends
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Exclusive: Check out the early-stage CGI used in Captain America: Brave New World
The visual effects company Digital Domain has shared an exclusive clip with Digital Trends showcasing the work that went into making one of the most pivotal scenes in Captain America: Brave New World. At over eight minutes long, the scene shows Captain America (Anthony Mackie) and the Falcon (Danny Ramirez) intercepting a dogfight over the Pacific Ocean between US and Japanese forces that could lead to a full-blown war. But what really makes the scene unique is that it's almost entirely CGI. 'There was a lot of footage where they captured Anthony Mackie on all these wires. But by the time it was over, it was all CG,' previsualization supervisor Cameron Ward told Digital Trends. In the previsualization (previs) clip, we get a good glimpse at the early-stage CGI they used to build the scene completely from scratch, including the massive open-ocean setting. Ward said the biggest challenge in the scene wasn't creating such a large space. It was the speed at which all the characters and objects were traveling. 'The biggest challenge with this scene was the speed at which everything was moving,' Ward said. 'We had 600-mile-per-hour missiles flying through the air above an open ocean that we had to build from scratch. You have to set up your camera in a way that feels like Cap just flew by at 600 miles an hour chasing after them. So we had to ask ourselves, how do we visualize that?' Creating the characters wasn't the only challenge Creating the clouds was also a surprisingly hefty task for the team. Digital Domain created its own proprietary cloud shader tool to help produce the right sizes, shading, textures, shadows, and various levels of opacity that we see in real clouds. The team even layered four to six cloud renderings on top of each other to give each cloud a varying level of brightness and depth, as we see in real clouds. Light and shadow were another huge focus for Digital Domain. Taking place over a reflective surface like water meant the team needed to accurately recreate the way sunlight reflects on the ocean. They also needed to create shadows to help give the scene a photorealistic look, so the team made sure to pay attention to every frame that involved a jet or character soaring through the air so they could create a shadow that would be cast on the ocean below. Before Captain America, Ward had worked on tons of huge projects, like The Last of Us, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Thunderbolts*. But he says Brave New World was his biggest venture yet and said that Digital Domain worked on the movie for an entire year. 'I've been with DD for five years,' he said, 'and this is the biggest, longest sequence I've ever worked on. It actually became much more CG than intended as the project went on, after they realized some of the plates didn't work because of things like reflections in the shot.' Now you can watch Captain America: Brave New World at home. The Marvel film arrives on DVD and Blu-ray on May 13. Disney+ subscribers can stream the film on the service starting May 28.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
VFX Leaders Weigh Potential of Forming a Global Trade Association and Gauge Impact of AI on the Workforce
Asserting that visual effects companies are 'still abused' and 'taken advantage of,' industry luminary Scott Ross, whose four decades in the industry included co-founding Digital Domain and serving as an exec at George Lucas' companies including Industrial Light & Magic warned, 'if it's not changed, we'll continue to see companies go out of business and creative, wonderful people be unemployed.' Ross was direct as he shared his views on the potential of forming a global trade association (a subject that isn't a new one but has been back on the minds of many in today's volatile business climate and in the wake of the collapse of Technicolor), as well as the 'elephant in the room,' AI, during a panel at the FMX (Film & Media Exchange) confab, which wrapped this weekend in Stuttgart, Germany. He started the panel, moderated by veteran entertainment and tech exec Dave Gouge, by admitting to the audience 'you're not going to like me because I'm actually going to tell the truth.' More from Variety Producer Chris DeFaria on Creator Economy and Strategy Behind Startup Chronicle Studios: 'We're Trying to Invert the Development Process' Technicolor Bankruptcy: Framestore Adds MPC Supervisors; Mikros India Talent Joins Cinesite's Assemblage Technicolor Bankruptcy: Thinkingbox's The Heist Hires Band of Creatives from The Mill and Expands Services The largely non-union VFX industry has the Visual Effects Society, an honorary society, but not a trade association and amid the VFX industries struggles, it's a model that has been reexamined. 'I was always a proponent of trade associations,' Ross said, though he added that he is unsure if today there is a clear path. 'One of the problems that I saw with the people running the VFX companies is fear sort of stopped them from going to the clients and saying, 'we're mad as hell and we're not gonna to take it anymore.' So I thought a trade association, if we signed up most of the majors, could provide the ability to be able to have leverage' in changing what many view as a broken business model. 'My concern is that a lot of the majors are owned by the studios,' he continued, citing as examples that Netflix bought Scanline and Disney owns ILM. 'If they own the [VFX companies], it's in the studio's interest not to change the business model. … The ability to have leverage that I thought years ago might have gone away, and so I don't know if a trade association would work at this point, but I think it would be a shot worth taking.' Similar to Ross' point, panelist David Li, CEO of Dream Machine FX, a collective for VFX brands Important Looking Pirates, Fin, Zero VFX, Mavericks VFX, and ARC Creative (which it launched in February with a group of talent formerly of Technicolor's The Mill) noted, 'every industry in the world has [a trade association]. I think there's a substantial opportunity for advocacy and collaboration. 'What I will say is that it feels like different studios play by different rules in the visual effects industry, that is probably the bigger driver of the absence of one,' he added, saying that should the industry come together to drive change, 'everyone needs to self-enforce that.' Li (who reported during the panel that Dream Machine has been 'profitable every single year') concluded the trade association discussion with a pledge. 'I do think it is the right thing to do,' he said. 'If you started a trade association, we would certainly join, Dream Machine, I would commit that to everyone here. And I think you're right, shared advocacy I think would be very beneficial.' During the last couple years, some VFX practitioners have taken steps to join labor union IATSE, including in-house VFX workers at Marvel and Walt Disney Pictures. But Ross warned that to achieve the benefits of unionization, it would need to be an international union. He related that IATSE covers Canada and the U.S. and estimated that it costs about 20% more to run a union company. 'And so if my pricing increases by 20% [and there's] a non-union shop, and they're located in London or located in India, I'm hurting myself.' Ross also spoke frankly about his concerns surrounding the notion of AI as a tool for creatives. 'Having run large visual effects companies, the majority of the staff of the visual effects workers were actually not core creative people. There was a group of people, let's say 15 or 20% of a staff of 500 or 1000 that actually were … creative, but tertiary creative and secondary creative at best.' He added that 'they were taking direction from a core creative person, the director, and a secondary creative person' such as a visual effects supervisor, art director or animation director. 'But I think a lot of the community takes this whole 'I'm an artist' thing to a level that we're fooling ourselves,' he warned. 'Many people within a visual effects company are actually putting tires and brakes and fenders on a car. They are not designing cars. And having to try to transition my life from being a person who ran a visual effects company or two to being a producer and coming up with creative and writing screenplays and developing screenplays, it's a quantum leap. 'At the end of the day, at least the clients that I work with, they wanted quality [VFX] work. The best there was. They wanted it on time, and they wanted it cheap,' Ross continued. 'When AI winds up becoming a really substantive force, I wonder about what that will do to the visual effects workforce.' Li was more optimistic, suggesting that creativity is becoming all the more important. 'We've done a lot of research into AI, and what we've found is that if 100 is the percentage it needs to be, in terms of, you know, quality, to go from zero to 50, it takes, like, nothing. … And to go from 80 to 85 it takes, you know, 300 [people] and 300 graphics cards, and every step of the way just becomes incrementally harder.' Li predicted opportunities, 'but I think that will only enhance those in this industry who truly have a great deal of creativity, artistry and a very special eye.' 'I agree with him,' Ross replied, stating that creative people 'will be more in demand than ever. However, that's a very small portion of what the overall manufacturing process is for visual effects.' Ross concluded this thought be reminding the audience that AI is developing at a rapid pace, 'it's clunky and it has problems today, but it also is the fastest learning mother that is out there. And so what we're looking at today will be different in three months, in a year, in three years.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Digital Domain to Present at the AI & Technology Virtual Investor Conference April 3rd 2025
Company invites individual and institutional investors, as well as advisors and analysts, to attend online at NEW YORK, April 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digital Domain (OTCQX: DDHLY; Hong Kong Stock Exchange: 547), focused on visual effects, AI and virtual human business, today announced that Mr. William Wong, CEO, will present at the AI & Technology Virtual Investor Conference hosted by on April 3rd, 2025 DATE: April 3rd 2025 TIME: 4:00 PM ETLINK: REGISTER HERE All questions from investors will be recorded and forwarded to the company after the event. The company will answer the relevant questions as soon as practicable. It is recommended that online investors pre-register and run the online system check to expedite participation and receive event updates. Learn more about the event at Recent Company Highlights Digital Domain and Toppan Holdings launched the collaboration of photorealistic virtual human solutions using biometric data from real human, aiming to increase efficiency and productivity of human services in diverse applications. Digital Domain teamed up with AWS to expand our virtual human solutions across the AWS cloud networks with scalability and flexibility. Digital Domain partnered with Plaza Premium Group, the largest independently run pay-in airport lounge in the world with presence of over 80 airports, to launch an innovative virtual human hospitality service. For more details of the above announcements, you may refer to: IR Digital Domain About Digital Domain Digital Domain is a pioneer in the virtualization of sensory experiences. After more than 3 decades of evolution, Digital Domain has transformed from a Hollywood company to achieve global expansion in fields such as VFX, AI Virtual Human, and Visualization. Digital Domain's rich legacy comprises hundreds of films and TV series, thousands of commercials, game graphics, and experimental immersive experiences. The most outstanding achievements include: academy awards for 'Best Visual Effects' in the films Titanic, What Dreams May Come, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, blockbuster classics such as The Avengers series, and the 4th season of the popular word-of-mouth hit show Stranger Things. Digital Domain has charted a pioneering course into the realms of AI and virtual reality since 2016, revolutionizing the creation of emotionally expressive and photorealistic virtual humans in real-time. The company's AI Virtual Human technology is widely applicable across diverse sectors such as healthcare and elderly service, training and education, concierge service, BFSI, the public sector, Entertainment etc. It enhances service efficiency, user experience, and business value. Digital Domain is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (Stock code: 547) and is headquartered in Hong Kong. Digital Domain maintains operations in multiple cities including Los Angeles, Vancouver, Montreal, Beijing, Shanghai, Hyderabad, and more. For more information, visit the official website – About Virtual Investor Conferences®Virtual Investor Conferences (VIC) is the leading proprietary investor conference series that provides an interactive forum for publicly traded companies to seamlessly present directly to investors. Providing a real-time investor engagement solution, VIC is specifically designed to offer companies more efficient investor access. Replicating the components of an on-site investor conference, VIC offers companies enhanced capabilities to connect with investors, schedule targeted one-on-one meetings and enhance their presentations with dynamic video content. Accelerating the next level of investor engagement, Virtual Investor Conferences delivers leading investor communications to a global network of retail and institutional investors. CONTACTS: Digital Domain Kavita Maharaj Smith Arthur Ma Director of Marketing Communications and Public Relations Vice President, Operation (+1) 562-201-9240 (852) 6181-1121 kavita@ Virtual Investor Conferences John M. ViglottiSVP Corporate Services, Investor AccessOTC Markets Group (212) 220-2221johnv@ Sign in to access your portfolio
